Resolving, should the auguries consulted permit him to depart, to
entrust Gurth with the charge of informing Edith, Harold parted from
his betrothed, without hint of his suspended designs; and he passed
the day in making all preparations for his absence and his journey,
promising Gurth to give his final answer on the morrow,--when either
himself or his brother should depart for Rouen. But more and more
impressed with the arguments of Gurth, and his own sober reason, and
somewhat perhaps influenced by the forebodings of Edith (for that
mind, once so constitutionally firm, had become tremulously alive to
such airy influences), he had almost predetermined to assent to his
brother's prayer, when he departed to keep his dismal appointment with
the Morthwyrtha. The night was dim, but not dark; no moon shone, but
the stars, wan though frequent, gleamed pale, as from the farthest
deeps of the heaven; clouds grey and fleecy rolled slowly across the
welkin, veiling and disclosing, by turns, the melancholy orbs.
The Morthwyrtha, in her dark dress, stood within the circle of stones.
She had already kindled a fire at the foot of the bautastein, and its
glare shone redly on the grey shafts; playing through their forlorn
gaps upon the sward. By her side was a vessel, seemingly of pure
water, filled from the old Roman fountain, and its clear surface
flashed blood-red in the beams. Behind them, in a circle round both
fire and water, were fragments of bark, cut in a peculiar form, like
the head of an arrow, and inscribed with the mystic letters; nine were
the fragments, and on each fragment were graved the runes. In her
right hand the Morthwyrtha held her seid-staff, her feet were bare,
and her loins girt by the Hunnish belt inscribed with mystic letters;
from the belt hung a pouch or gipsire of bearskin, with plates of
silver. Her face, as Harold entered the circle, had lost its usual
calm--it was wild and troubled.
She seemed unconscious of Harold's presence, and her eye fixed and
rigid, was as that of one in a trance. Slowly, as if constrained by
some power not her own, she began to move round the ring with a
measured pace, and at last her voice broke low, hollow, and internal,
into a rugged chaunt, which may be thus imperfectly translated--
"By the Urdar-fount dwelling,
Day by day from the rill,
The Nornas besprinkle
The ash Ygg-drassill, [181]
The hart bites the buds,
And the snake gnaws the root,
But the eagle all-seeing
Keeps watch on the fruit.
These drops on thy tomb
From the fountain I pour;
With the rune I invoke thee,
With flame I restore.
Dread Father of men,
In the land of thy grave,
Give voice to the Vala,
And light to the Brave."
As she thus chaunted, the Morthwyrtha now sprinkled the drops from the
vessel over the bautastein,--now, one by one, cast the fragments of
bark scrawled with runes on the fire. Then, whether or not some
glutinous or other chemical material had been mingled in the water, a
pale gleam broke from the gravestone thus sprinkled, and the whole
tomb glistened in the light of the leaping fire. From this light a
mist or thin smoke gradually rose, and took, though vaguely, the
outline of a vast human form. But so indefinite was the outline to
Harold's eye, that gazing on it steadily, and stilling with strong
effort his loud heart, he knew not whether it was a phantom or a
vapour that he beheld.
The Vala paused, leaning on her staff, and gazing in awe on the
glowing stone, while the Earl, with his arms folded on his broad
breast, stood hushed and motionless. The sorceress recommenced:
"Mighty dead, I revere thee,
Dim-shaped from the cloud,
With the light of thy deeds
For the web of thy shroud.
As Odin consulted
Mimir's skull hollow-eyed, [182]
Odin's heir comes to seek
In the Phantom a guide."
As the Morthwyrtha ceased, the fire crackled loud, and from its flame
flew one of the fragments of bark to the feet of the sorceress:--the
runic letters all indented with sparks.
The sorceress uttered a loud cry, which, despite his courage and his
natural strong sense, thrilled through the Earl's heart to his marrow
and bones, so appalling was it with wrath and terror; and while she
gazed aghast on the blazing letters, she burst forth:
"No warrior art thou,
And no child of the tomb;
I know thee, and shudder,
Great Asa of Doom.
Thou constrainest my lips
And thou crushest my spell;
Bright Son of the Giant
Dark Father of Hell!" [183]
The whole form of the Morthwyrtha then became convulsed and agitated,
as if with the tempest of frenzy; the foam gathered to her lips, and
her voice rang forth like a shriek:
"In the Iron Wood rages
The Weaver of Harm,
The giant Blood-drinker
Hag-born MANAGARM. [184]
A keel nears the shoal;
From the slime and the mud
Crawl the newt and the adder,
The spawn the of flood.
Thou stand'st on the rock
Where the dreamer beheld thee.
O soul, spread thy wings,
Ere the glamour hath spell'd thee.
O, dread is the tempter,
And strong the control;
But conquer'd the tempter,
If firm be the soul"
The Vala paused; and though it was evident that in her frenzy she was
still unconscious of Harold's presence, and seemed but to be the
compelled and passive voice to some Power, real or imaginary, beyond
her own existence, the proud man approached, and said:
"Firm shall be my soul, nor of the dangers which beset it would I ask
the dead or the living. If plain answers to mortal sense can come
from these airy shadows or these mystic charms, reply, O interpreter
of fate; reply but to the questions I demand. If I go to the court of
the Norman, shall I return unscathed?"
The Vala stood rigid as a shape of stone while Harold thus spoke; and
her voice came so low and strange as if forced from her scarce-moving
lips:
"Thou shalt return unscathed."
"Shall the hostages of Godwin, my father, be released"
"The hostages of Godwin shall be released," answered the same voice;
"the hostages of Harold be retained."
"Wherefore hostage from me?"
"In pledge of alliance with the Norman."
"Ha! then the Norman and Harold shall plight friendship and troth?"
"Yes!" answered the Vala; but this time a visible shudder passed over
her rigid form.
"Two questions more, and I have done. The Norman priests have the ear
of the Roman Pontiff. Shall my league with William the Norman avail
to win me my bride?"
"It will win thee the bride thou wouldst never have wedded but for thy
league with William the Norman. Peace with thy questions, peace!"
continued the voice, trembling as with some fearful struggle; "for it
is the demon that forces my words, and they wither my soul to speak
them."
"But one question more remains; shall I live to wear the crown of
England; and if so, when shall I be a king?"
At these words the face of the Prophetess kindled, the fire suddenly
leapt up higher and brighter; again, vivid sparks lighted the runes on
the fragments of bark that were shot from the flame; over these last
the Morthwyrtha bowed her head, and then, lifting it, triumphantly
burst once more into song.
"When the Wolf Month [185], grim and still,
Heaps the snow-mass on the hill;
When, through white air, sharp and bitter,
Mocking sunbeams freeze and glitter;
When the ice-gems, bright and barbed,
Deck the boughs the leaves had garbed
Then the measure shall be meted,
And the circle be completed.
Cerdic's race, the Thor-descended,
In the Monk-king's tomb be ended;
And no Saxon brow but thine
Wear the crown of Woden's line.
Where thou wendest, wend unfearing,
Every step thy throne is nearing.
Fraud may plot, and force assail thee,--
Shall the soul thou trusteth fail thee?
If it fail thee, scornful hearer,
Still the throne shines near and nearer.
Guile with guile oppose, and never
Crown and brow shall Force dissever:
Till the dead men unforgiving
Loose the war steeds on the living;
Till a sun whose race is ending
Sees the rival stars contending;
Where the dead men, unforgiving,
Wheel the war steeds round the living.
Where thou wendest, wend unfearing;
Every step thy throne is nearing.
Never shall thy House decay,
Nor thy sceptre pass away,
While the Saxon name endureth
In the land thy throne secureth;
Saxon name and throne together,
Leaf and root, shall wax and wither;
So the measure shall be meted,
And the circle close completed.
Art thou answer'd, dauntless seeker?
Go, thy bark shall ride the breaker,
Every billow high and higher,
Waft thee up to thy desire;
And a force beyond thine own,
Drift and strand thee on the throne.
When the Wolf Month, grim and still,
Piles the snow-mass on the hill,
In the white air sharp and bitter
Shall thy kingly sceptre glitter:
When the ice-gems barb the bough
Shall the jewels clasp thy brow;
Winter-wind, the oak uprending,
With the altar-anthem blending;
Wind shall howl, and mone shall sing,
'Hail to Harold--HAIL THE KING!'"
An exultation that seemed more than human, so intense it was and so
solemn,--thrilled in the voice which thus closed predictions that
seemed signally to belie the more vague and menacing warnings with
which the dreary incantation had commenced. The Morthwyrtha stood
erect and stately, still gazing on the pale blue flame that rose from
the burial stone, still slowly the flame waned and paled, and at last
died with a sudden flicker, leaving the grey tomb standing forth all
weatherworn and desolate, while a wind rose from the north and sighed
through the roofless columns. Then as the light over the grave
expired, Hilda gave a deep sigh, and fell to the ground senseless.
Harold lifted his eyes towards the stars and murmured:
"If it be a sin, as the priests say, to pierce the dark walls which
surround us here, and read the future in the dim world beyond, why
gavest thou, O Heaven, the reason, ever resting, save when it
explores? Why hast thou set in the heart the mystic Law of Desire,
ever toiling to the High, ever grasping at the Far?"
Heaven answered not the unquiet soul. The clouds passed to and fro in
their wanderings, the wind still sighed through the hollow stones, the
fire shot with vain sparks towards the distant stars. In the cloud
and the wind and the fire couldst thou read no answer from Heaven,
unquiet soul?
The next day, with a gallant company, the falcon on his wrist [186],
the sprightly hound gamboling before his steed, blithe of heart and
high in hope, Earl Harold took his way to the Norman court.